José Antonio Zaldúa Urdanavia (15 December 1941 – 30 June 2018), known as Zaldúa, was a Spanish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. Throughout his career, Zaldúa played for Spanish clubs

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football. The team's ...

and

CE Sabadell FC Centre d'Esports Sabadell Futbol Club, S.A.D. () is a historical List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Sabadell ( Catalonia) Founded in 1903, its first men's team plays in the . Its first CE Sabadell (women), women's tea ...

. At international level, he represented the

Spain national football team The Spain national football team () has represented Spain in men's international Association football, football competitions since 1920. It is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. Spain i ...

Career

Born in Elizondo, he began his professional career with

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

, making his Primera División debut against

Elche Elche (, ; , , , ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2024's data, Elche has a population of 234,800 inhabitants,

in January 17, 1960. He joined

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in the summer of 1961, staying there for a decade, bar a loan to

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

from 1964-1965. Although he did not win any league titles, he scored 106 times in 217 games for Barcelona, including a goal in the 1969 European Cup Winners' Cup final against Slovan Bratislava, which ended in a 3-2 defeat, and 5 goals against

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

in the

1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The eighth Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was played over the 1965–66 season. The competition was won by Barcelona over two legs in an all-Spanish final against Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital ...

, which he later won with Barcelona. Zaldúa later joined

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, where it is one of the two capitals, the other being Terrassa. It is located on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona, a ...

in 1971, keeping his football career in Catalonia until his retirement in 1975.

International career

Zaldúa made one appearance for Spain's under-21 team in a 2-0 win against France, and three appearances for the senior team, the last of which in a 2-1 loss against Belgium.

Death

Zaldúa died on 30 June 2018, which was soon announced by Barcelona. He died at the age of 76 of cancer in his home in Maresme, which he had resided in since retirement.

References

External links

*
National team data
at BDFutbol *
FC Barcelona profile

at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaldua, Jose Antonio 1941 births 2018 deaths People from Baztán (comarca) Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Navarre Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Real Valladolid players FC Barcelona players CA Osasuna players CE Sabadell FC footballers Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's B international footballers Spain men's international footballers Catalonia men's international guest footballers 20th-century Spanish sportsmen